Green Eyed Monsters (2 block multi-part epic!)

Block 1, Session 1:

The cast arrived at the military river-port of Coldwood in good spirits. The crew were working well together, Elise slowly coming out of her shell, and a stowaway dwarf able to help Kieryn in both reaching out to her and constructing her a prosthetic aiming hook for her amputated left arm. While she might not fire as quickly as before, she would at least be able to wield her rifle again, giving her purpose and direction.

The arrival and subsequent unloading of their cargo of weapons was met with a concerned and frosty sergeant, far more concerned with getting them unloaded quickly and paid off before the military village was raided again by the greenskins. The barracks were filled with wounded, soldier rotations leaving an undermanned window of three days to ensure that both they and the front lines got warriors back into action promptly for the next month.

They weren't quick enough. The dockside was overrun with hundreds of snotlings, and while the pathetic little things were easy to slay, their sheer numbers left many injured, and several long-term townsfolk dead, including the madam of the small brothel. Not a great loss one might think, but the Clinks new well that local pillow talk could be as useful, if not more so, than the local law.

In the aftermath Mr Clink took the three prostitutes under his wing while the rest of the crew arranged to finish unloading and be paid.

Block 1, Session 2:

being paid for their work was not quite so easy though, as in the ruckus of battle and the scramble to treat the wounded that followed, the Sergeant's office had been expertly broken into, and his supply moneys for the rest of the month stolen. A tense negotiation followed, but he assured them that if they were patient they would be paid, and if they were willing to help in the hunt for the culprits, that pay would be doubled.

Naturally this was more than good enough for our stalwart, greedy, ambitious 'heroes', so they set about making their investigations. Not very hard mind. Kieryn had just started studying spellcraft, and took a whole evening catching fireflies and acquiring butter, Mr Clink tried to recruit the brothel now their madam was gone, Mrs Clink went off to annoy the local Knights of Mannan, while the rest did most of the actual information gathering.

Another docked ship, belonging to a merchant cartel based in Marienburg, were the prime suspects. They seemed entirely above board however, a little too clean and convenient, and so the group required a plan.

Block 1, Session 3:

With two threats at hand, both the gold thieves and the possibility of another greenskin again (snotlings could never have made it all this way from the front without leadership), the plans were put into motion. Those of a naval mindset would get the Knights of Mannan to help out with more than just swords. Digging a trench between the forest edge and the outpost then filling it with gunpowder, oil, and other flammable material would make for a quick defence should a charge be spotted, and moving their ship into the river canal proper to train a broadside onto the field would scatter any who made it through unscathed. It would take days, but any progress would be better than none.

The rest of the group cornered the thick muscle of the cartel trader's crew, got him drunk, and set up an ambush in the now empty brothel. There he was set upon, tied up, and threatened with Kieryn's newfound (and commonly dreaded) magical power and some choice threats from other sides. After that he admitted that his captain had arranged the theft, and that the gold was being hidden on the ship.

The following day they arranged with the town sergeant to have a group search the ship, but Mrs Clink had already been working on plans of her own to have the blame cast on them. By midday, when the rest of the cast were confronting the cartel traders, she had whipped the townsfolk into such a fury over those acts, embellishing their acts with daemon worship and black magic, that a huge mob descended on the dockside. Johan was nearly drowned in the ensuing stampede, only the blessing of the Lord Mannon Himself saving him from certain death at the bottom of the canal, and it took hours to calm everyone and restore order.

That done the search of the ship commenced. With the soldiers too busy setting the town to rights again it was our cast who undertook the search, the Captain accommodating all the way and even showing them into his hidden hold, before setting that hold alight with the Clinks, Johan and one of his own men down there. between Kieryn's magic and Hans' axe the Capitan died a swift and bloody death, while Mrs Clink (who had pocketed a gold bar already) tried to leap to safety up the ladder, missed her step, and fell into the flames. The fire might have claimed her and everyone else down there had the hull not been burned through enough to collapse, washing her out into the water to be picked up burned and unconscious by a local fisherman. Mortified by this Mr Clink had tried to swim out after her, but with no success, and they there all reunited on the dockside as the ship sank.

A diving operation to recover the gold would get underway in the morning, and while the Clinks recovered in the hospital tent and the rest headed back to their boat, the crisis seemed averted. The night passed peacefully, and in the morning, rested and at least somewhat recovered, they went to be paid.

Then they and the entire town heard the most almighty explosion, and after the warning shots fired by the Knights of Mannan from their ship they knew it wasn't cannon fire!